Athens, Greece – April 13 to 17

Earlier this week I flew to Athens with Mitch, one of the UI students in the German program who lives across the hall from me in Haus Panorama. Since the end of the Metro line connecting to the airport in Athens is offline until September, we had to ride a bus into the city, which was quite a wild ride - motorcycles swerving between cars seemed normal here. Some bad news at the hostel: when booking the hostel I assumed "Double Bed Private (Shared Bathroom)" meant two beds, but evidently that was not the case, so Mitch and I had to set up a 'backpack barrier' down the one bed.

By this time it was late in the afternoon. Having little else open to us we took a tour of the National Archaeological Museum. The Museum and most other tourist attractions offered free admission for European students, so it was fortunate that both of us had brought our Vienna university IDs. The museum had, among other things, prehistoric, sculpture, vases, bronze, and Egyptian collections which were all interesting. Well, some more than others. Afterwards we went out for a Greek dinner - I had stuffed peppers and grilled feta, which were both excellent. We then headed back to the hostel, but before calling it a night decided to check out its bar. We wound up staying up for several hours chatting with the bartender, Hannah, the hostel manager, Jonathan, and a couple others.

That probably wasn't the smartest decision, since while checking in we had scheduled an early walking tour of the city. Compounding matters was the fact that somehow both our alarms failed to go off, but luckily the manager gave us a call. So we had all of five minutes to get ready to go. The tour group was pretty small, just me, Mitch, and two Texans from our hostel. But that wound up being a good thing since we were better able to hear and interact with our tour guide, Walter, who was very knowledgeable about Athenian and Greek history. We saw Hadrian's Library, the Roman Agora, the Tower of the Winds, the Theater of Dionysus, the Odeion of Herodes Atticus, the Arch of Hadrian, the Temple of Olympian Zeus, the National Gardens, the Zappeoin, the original modern Olympic Games stadium and, of course, the Acropolis. The Acropolis was of course the highlight of the tour, but being able to run the track of the Olympic Stadium was an unexpected surprise. More details of each in the description section of my Flickr photos.

Following the tour the four of us took a bus to the Athenian coast to check out the beach. Since it had rained earlier and was still fairly cool out we didn't try to swim. Still, it was worth it to see the Mediterranean up close. Instead of going out to eat that night we instead had sign up for dinner at the hostel: the home cooked food there was both excellent and significantly cheaper than going out to a restaurant. Following dinner Mitch, the Texans, and I hiked up one of the mountains in the city for an amazing view of the Acropolis lit up at night. Definitely worth the close run in with two stray dogs along the way.

Wednesday turned out less eventful, but that wasn't for a lack of trying. We had planned out a trip to Delphi, a major archaeological site, and even woke up to try and catch a 7:30am bus. But unfortunately we narrowly missed it, so after a short nap we tried again at 10:30. Ultimately that didn't work out either, so we gave up and instead headed out to Cape Sounion to see the Temple of Poseidon. Cape Sounion is, according to legend, where Aegeus, king of Athens, leapt to his death after seeing a black sail on his son Theseu's ship returning from Crete. The crew was supposed to hoist a white flag if he survived the fight with the Minotaur, but had forgotten to. Anyway, that's where the Aegean Sea gets its name. The approximately 2 hour bus ride to the cape was very scenic going along the coast. At Sounion we checked out the temple and took in an awe-inspiring view of the mountains, sea, and islands.

The following day I got to be a tour guide...well sort of. Five girls from UI had flown out to Greece the same day as Mitch and I (that's where we got the idea). For the first several days they stayed on the island of Santorini, leaving Wednesday via boat for Athens. Since Mitch and I didn't have anything else planned, we offered to recreate Walter's tour for them. It was interesting how much more crowded the sites were on Thursday, but on the upside it wasn't cloudy this time around (no new photos though since I forgot to charge my camera). Likewise, there were no dog attacks. Just the opposite canine experience actually: a dog followed us up the mountain, stayed around while we were taking photos, and then followed us almost all the way down to the subway station.

That night we all went out to an Italian pub to cool off after a long, hot day, and to watch Mitch's favorite soccer team, Manchester City, play (didn't turn out well). After dropping the girls off at what we heard later was a fairly shady hostel, Mitch and I headed back to ours. Jonathan, Hannah, and her Italian friend were going out to some clubs, so in perhaps a less-than-wise move with the early morning flight Mitch and I went to check out the Athenian nightlife. That left us with no sleep and little time to get ready in the morning, but we managed to get on the plane fine.

Anyway, so that was my 5 day spring break trip to Greece. The best trip yet, and certainly more fun than the previous week which was almost solely consisted of me working on my research paper.

Here are my photos from Greece on Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/32227991@N02/sets/72157616945079913/